The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-01

good could be. Inc trSt we heard OF him
was his opening prayer in the Confederate
congress in Richmond, which was reported in
the New York papers, which prayer, if
would, to say the least, have left |
all his northern relatives in very uncomfort-
able circumstances. The ministry at the
north prayed one way aud the ministry at |
the south prayed the other way. No use in
hiding the fact that the north and the south |
cursed each other with a whitening and all |
curse.
Beside that antipathy of war time / place |
the complete accord of this time Not long
ago a meeting in New York was held to raise |
money to build a home at Richmond for |
crippled Confederate soldiers, and was pre- |
sided over by man who lost an arm and a |
leg in fighting on the northern side, and the
leg which was not lost so hurt that it does not
amount to much The Cotton exhibition held
not long ago at Atlanta was attended by tens
Of thousands of northern people and by Gen.
Sherman, who was greeted with kindness, as
though they had never seen him before AT
the New Orleans exhibition, held two years
ago, every northern state was represented A
thousand fold kindlier feeling after the war
than before the war. No more use for gun
powder in this country, except for rifle prac-
tice or Fourth of July pyrotechnics or a shot
generals in the Southern Confederacy
making their fortunes as lawyers in the
northern cities. Rivers of Georgia, Ala
bama and North Carolina turning
mills Of New England capitalists The old
lions of war, Fort Sumter and Moultrie and
Lafayette and Pickens and Hamilton, sound
asleep ON their iron paws, and instead of rails
ing money to keep enemies out of our New
York harbor, raising money for the Bartholdi
statute Bedloe's island, figure of liberty
with uplifted torch to light the way to all
who want to come in. Instead of war antip-
athies, when you could not cross the line be-
tween the contestants without fighting your
way with keen steel or getting through by
passes carefully scrutinized at every step by
bayonets, you need only a railroad ticket
from New York to Charleston or New Orleans
TO go clear through, and there is no use for
any weapon sharper or stronger than steel
pen Since the years of time began their
roll, has there ever been in about two decades
such an overmasteTing antithesis as between
the war time of complete bitterness, and this
time of complete sympathy?
Contrast also the domestic life of those
times with the domestic life of these times
Many of you were either leaving home or far
away from it, communicating by uncertain
letter. What morning that was when you
left homel Father and mother crying sisters
crying, you smiling outside but crying inside.
Everybody nervous and excited. Boys of the
blue and gray whether you started from the
banks of the Hudson, or the Savannah, or the
Androscoggin, don't you remember the scenes
at the front door, at the rail car window, ON
the steamboat landings The huzza could not
drown out the suppressed sadness Don't you
remember those charges to write home often,
and take good care of yourself, be good boys
and the goodby kiss which they thought and
you thought might be foreverf Then the
homesickness as you paced the river bank on
a starlight night on picket duty, and the SLY
tears which you wiped off when you heard a
group at the camp fire singing the plantation
song about the old folks at home. The dinner of
hard tack on Thanksgiving Day, and the
Christmas without any presents, and the long
nights in the hospital SO different from the
sickness when you were at home with mother
and sister at the bedside, and the clock in the
hall, giving the exact moment for the medi-
cine; and that forced march when your legs
ached, and your head ached, and your
wounds ached, and more than all, your heart
ached Homeslckness, which had in it suf-
location and n pang worse than death. You
never got hardened as did the guardsman in
the Crimean war, who heartlessly wrote
home to his mother:
81 do not want to see any more crying let
tiers come to the Crimea from you. Those
have received put into my rifle after load
ing it, and have fired them at the Russians
because You appear to have a strong dislike
Of them. If you have seen as many killed as
have you would not have as many weak
ideas as you now have"
You never felt like that. When a soldiers
knapsack was found after his death in the
American war there was generally careful
package containing a Bible, a few photo
graphs and letters from home. On the other
hand tens of thousands of homes waited for
news. Parents saying: Twenty thousand
killed. | wonder If our boy was among
them" Painting dead away in post offices
and telegraph stations. Both the ears of
God filed with the sobs and agonies of kindred
waiting for news, or dropping under the an
nouncement of bad news. Speak, swamps of
the Chiekahominy, and midnight lagoons,
and fire RATS of the Mississippi, and gunboats
before Vlcksburg, and woods of Antietam,
and tell 20 all the mountains and valleys and
rivers and lakes of north and south, jeremiads
of war times that have never been syllabledl
Beside that domestic perturbation and
homesickness of those days put the sweet do
messicity of to-day. The only camp fire You
now ever sit at is the one kindled in stove
or furnace or hearth. Instead of a half ration
of salt pork, repast luxuriant because par
taken of by loving family circle and in secret
condolences Oh, now I see who those letters
were for, the letters you, the young soldier,
took so long in your tent to write, and that
you were so particular TO put in the mail
without any one seeing you lest you be leased
by your comrades. God spared you to get
ho-l =.
you have home of your own construction,
and you often contrast those awful absences
and filial and brotherly and loverly heart
breaks with your present residence, which is
the dearest place You will find this side of
heaven. The place where your children were
born Is the place where you want to die To
write the figures of 1862 set up four CRYSTALS,
crystals of tears. To write the figures of 1887
/ stand up four members of your household.
figures of rosy cheeks and fiaxen hair. if can
get them to stand still long enough.
Contrast also the religious opportunities of
twenty years ago with now Often ON the
march from Sunday morn till night, or com
manded by officers who considered the name
OF God and Christ Of no use except to swear
by. Sometimes the drumhead, the pulpit and
you standing in heat or cold, all the surround
ings OF military life having a tendency to
make you reckless. No privacy for prayer
or Bible reading. No sound of church bells.
Sabbaths spent far away from the place where
You were brought up Now, the choicest
sanctuaries, easy pew, all Christian surround
ings, the air full of God and Christ. and
heaven and doxology. Three mountains
lifting themselves into the holy light-Mount
Sinai laundering its law, Mount Calvary
| pleading the sacrifice, Mount Pisgah iisplay-
| ing the promised land
Contrast of national condition: 1862. spend-
ing money by the millions in devastation of
| property and life; 1887, the finances SO recon-
structed that all the stock gamblers OF Wall
| street combined cannot make a national
panic, 1862, surgeons of the land setting
broken bones and amputating gangrened
limbs and studying gunshot fractures and in
venting easy ambulances for the wounded
and dying; 1887, surgeons giving their atterl-
tons TO those In casualty of agriculture, of
commerce or mechanical life, the rushing Of
the ambulance through our streets, not sug-
costing battle, but quick relief Of some one
fallen in peaceful industries; 1862, 5000. 900
inhabitants in this land; 1887, 81, 000,O 900:
1862, wheat, about 5000, 600 bushels; 1887,
the wheat win be about SOC, 000, 900 bushels;
1862, Pacific coast five weeks from the Attain
tic; 1887, for three reasons, Union Pacific,
Southern Pacific and Northern Pacific, only
seven days across. Look ut the long line OF
churches, universities, asylums and houses
with which, during the last few years, this
land has been decorated
Living soldiers Of the north and south, take
new and special ordination at this season OF
the year, to garland the sepulcbers OF your
fallen comrades Nothing IS too good for
their memories Turn all the private tombs
and the national cemeteries into gardens Yo
-. 49, xrsr L1t $50 r. =